


chalk and stone

by Luridel



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Episode 56, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 18:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7234606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luridel/pseuds/Luridel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"After Vox Machina has left Westruun, Amelia heads down into what she can’t help but still think of as the sewers."</p><p>Potential spoilers for up to episode 56.</p>
            </blockquote>





	chalk and stone

After Vox Machina has left Westruun, Amelia heads down into what she can’t help but still think of as the sewers. She isn’t expecting much from the underground bunker, and so she is pleasantly surprised by the large stone room with the two memorial walls. Names have been carved into one of them, and Amelia spends some time searching for her dad’s.

She’s simple folk (and that doesn’t sound right, it’s not the way she usually says it, _we’re simple folk_ to include her dad), but she knows how to read well enough, and she’s alarmed when she finds her own name engraved there instead. With a subtle frown, she reaches up to trace over the letters with her fingertips.

“The names of the living,” Kerrek says, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “Us who remained in our city. He was quite insistent on that.”

Amelia doesn’t ask who ‘he’ is, just nods to the blacksmith standing beside her. She means to greet him (be polite, Amelia), but when she opens her mouth she can’t quite seem to get any words out.

Kerrek, understanding as ever, doesn’t comment on her poor manners, just gently turns her around to face the opposite wall. “And that one’s for stories about Westruun and its people. If you want to write anything yourself, you’re welcome to.”

The back wall of the room is… disorganized in a way that surprises Amelia. Along the very top are several lines about the founding of Westruun, but then the handwriting changes, and she reads a segment about the Cobalt Reserve (and oh, she hasn’t been there since the attack, she doesn’t even know if it still stands). Not everything is carved into this wall: there are plenty of sentences written in chalk, and lower to the ground there are quite a few chalk drawings. A ladder leans up against this wall, and an elderly-looking gnome is perched only two rungs up, writing something Amelia can’t quite see.

Squeezing her shoulder warmly, the blacksmith moves away, leaving Amelia to walk slowly towards the back wall. Her gaze comes to rest on a line of stick figures accompanied by a beautifully-drawn bear, and she recognizes Vox Machina easily enough: one is taller than the others, with a beard, and two are shorter. She knows all of their names by now, because _everyone_ knows all of their names by now, and her thoughts are drawn towards the man who gave her a chance to say goodbye to her father. Vax’ildan, his name is, half-elf and twin of Vex’ahlia, and he looked so sad. Amelia wishes they could have met under better circumstances.

She should write something, she thinks, but by the time she has found a piece of chalk, she’s no longer certain she knows what to say. Dad’s name ought to be up here somewhere, but she doesn’t want it to be in chalk, easily smudged away.

She’ll think on it. She has time, now. She has plenty of stories to tell… and the wall isn’t going anywhere.


End file.
